Seth frowned angrily. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around the church, watching as the crime scene unit collected evidence. Slowly, he made his way down the isle of the church, staring straight ahead at the cross that stood tall and mighty with Jesus being crucified.
His distain for religion grew more each day he was on this case.
He finally stopped once he reached the very front of the church, seeing Father Thomas sitting on the bench. Instead of seeing him smiling as always, he saw him dead.
Seth stared at his body, no longer feeling anything.
"Detective Lance," Nancy said as she stood behind Seth. The detective sighed, crossing his arms. There was a banging in his head which made it harder for him to concentrate. He had no coffee and he was agitated.
"A gunshot to the chest," Seth whispered to himself. "The third gunshot murder victim just had to be Father Thomas." He scoffed and shook his head. "What are the odds?"
"The church doors are always unlocked during the day, so forced entry is out of the question. There doesn't appear to be a struggle also." Nancy walked in front of Seth, trying to see if he was paying attention. But of course he wasn't. Instead he just kept staring at Father Thomas' body.
"Alright, what do we got?" The voice of Walter said as he walked in with his hair slicked back with gel. Nancy turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Whats up with the hair?" She asked.
Walter shrugged. His hair was usually just swiftly swept back with no products in it, so to see it styled this way was a complete surprise to Nancy since Walter was very laid back and not fancy at all. He looked like a rich man.
"I wanted to try something new I guess. But thats not important. Just tell me what we got."
Nancy cleared her throat and nodded, turning over to the dead body that was sitting on the bench. "Thomas Bernard, age fifty–four. Cause of death seems to be a gunshot wound to the chest, dead center. I'm estimating time of death at about seven or eight in the morning from yesterday."
Walter walked over a bullet casing that was on the floor with an evidence marker next to it. He crouched down to get a closer look at it, scanning it carefully.
"What else?"
"Forced entry is out of the question since the church always keeps its doors open during the day. Theres no sign of a struggle as well. Theres... not a whole lot to go off of."
"Thats alright," Walter whispered. He got back up and looked over to his partner who was now staring up at the big cross. "Seth?" Walter gently placed a hand on his partners back, snapping him back into reality.
"Hm?"
"You ok?"
Seth looked at Walter and Nancy, taking one last glance at the cross before nodding his head and proceeding with walking through the crime scene.
-x-
Raymond looked down at the blood running down his wrist and onto the bathroom sink. It wasn't intentional this time. He accidentally cut himself with his razor while shaving his face. He'd have to explain to Victoria that he didn't mean to do it, it just happened.
He cleaned up his cut and all the blood on the sink. The blood triggered him though. But he tried so hard to not remember the crime scene.
"Ray, what's taking so long?" Victoria shouted on the other side of the door. "Taking a number two?"
Ray wiped his tears away. He wasn't done shaving his face. He felt unmotivated to do so. He was so close though.
"Um, y–yea," he replied back, rolling his eyes. He could hear Victoria groaning before walking away. Raymond shaved the last bit of facial hair he had left before cleaning his razor.
He left the bathroom to be confronted by Victoria who was in his bedroom, staring down at the floor.
"Everything ok, Victoria?"
There was a slight hesitation before Victoria answered back with tears on the edge of her eyes.
"Emily called me a few days before it happened. She sounded... upset." Victoria looked at her hands as she fiddled with her fingers. "She never told me specifically why she was upset. But I have a feeling she knew what was going to come."
Raymond furrowed his eyebrows. He sat down next to Victoria, parting his lips. "Vicky, I never asked you on how you're handling this."
Victoria let out a shaky sigh and shrugged before bursting into tears. She faced away from Raymond, not wanting him to see her turn into a mess. He held her close to him with his arms around her waist and his forehead against her shoulder.
-x-
Jonathan took a long sip of his coffee before setting it down on his desk. Sitting across his desk was Jordan, looking through evidence pictures of previous crime scenes.
"What are you doing?" He asked. Jordan shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. Something is missing."
Jonathan crossed his arms, peaking over to his partners desk. "What makes you say that?"
"Its just... he left footprints at the most recent crime scene. But none at the others. I'm trying to figure out why he did so." Jordan picked up the crime scene photo of the footprint he left behind at Monica's home and at the Hunter's household. It was both the same shoe size, same model. Same everything. "This isn't making sense. For so many years, he's been clean. So why does he mess up now?"
"He's trying to tell us something," Jonathan said. "If he's been clean for so long, making not a single mistake, then it means he's trying to prove a point."
Jordan tapped her fingertips against her desk with her other hand resting on her chin. "But what point is he trying to prove?"
"Sorry, I wish I had an answer for you on that."
The photos of the bloody footprints were clear and you could see the details in them. Jordan felt like the answer was jumping right at her. Mocking her, almost. How could she follow in a serial killers footsteps?
A serial killers footsteps...
Of course not. She would never. Jordan almost laughed at the idea.
-x-
Sarah sat in the rocking chair out on the front porch, quietly humming to herself as she gently patted Ginger, her dog. The day was humid yet beautiful. A perfect day to just relax. But it wasn't like anyone was relaxed. At least not for a few weeks now. Ever since her dad was put on this case, he has been locking himself in his office for hours. Sometimes even sleeping in there. Sarah always wondered what he was doing in there.
No one's home.
She picked up Ginger and got up, gently putting her down onto the rocking chair she was sitting in. She wasn't too worried that she would run away since she was sleeping and attached to a leash.
Sarah walked inside the house, making sure no one was home. She slowly made her way to her dads office, turning the nob. It was locked though. Of course it would be. He wouldn't just leave it open. She went into her parents bedroom, looking for the key. But it wasn't in any of the obvious places.
She tapped her fingers against her chin, thinking. He had to have put it in a secret place. Perhaps in a box or maybe taped up somewhere.
Where would a peaceful detective like my father put an important key at?
A man like him doesn't want to fight. He wants to keep everything peaceful. So he would keep the key in an area where it would be out in the open so that it wouldn't be kept a secret, but not completely out in the open where he would have to fight someone just to get the key back.
Of course he was it with him!
Sarah rubbed her chin, looking at the doorknob. There was no way she could get in without a key. She'd have to get it from him some other way. She went back outside to the porch, picking up Ginger and sitting back down onto the rocking chair, gently patting Ginger. She began to form a plan. And it had to be a damn good one.
-x-
Walter tapped his fingers against his chin as he stared at the board with the timeline of Father Thomas' murder. They already questioned everyone they needed to. Nothing was adding up. The murders were confusing Walter. He hated the feeling. Why did the murderer feel the need to kill others? He could have just stopped at Emily, but he continued. Why did he kill that John Doe? Why did he kill Joe Robinson? And why did he kill Father Thomas? They were all connected, but why?
Seth was sitting calmly. He sipped his coffee as he looked through the files.
"What do you think?" Walter turned to look at Seth.
Seth brought his coffee up to his lips, taking another sip before setting his cup back down. All his movements were calmer than usual. It wasn't really like him. "In the first murder, Emily's murder, he had an accomplice. Someone inexperienced." Seth kept his eyes on the papers in front of him, shuffling through them. "The first stab wound supports that theory. Nancy said that it missed her heart, causing blood to spray out. His accomplice was the one to do the murder. He doesn't have any knowledge of human anatomy."
"But our main guy does."
"Exactly," Seth said. He stood up, walking over to the board with Father Thomas' timeline plastered all over it. "Perhaps our main guy didn't start out with knowing a whole lot about human anatomy, but he kept learning."
Walter raised a brow, surprised that Seth had come up with this and never told him. He couldn't have just thought about this on the spot, no. He had this in his head for a while.
He grabbed his flip phone, pushing it into his pocket. "Come on, lets go."
"Go where?"
Walter raised a brow. "To Father Thomas' home. Where else?"
-x-
"He was a really good guy, never caused me any trouble," said the landlord as he walked alongside with the detectives.
"What do the neighbors think of him?" Seth asked.
"They liked him. Even the atheists. Said he made them feel safe and calm." The landlord let out a heavy sigh as they finally reached the apartment of Father Thomas. He unlocked it with the spare key.
Walter stopped the man before he could open the door, his hand placed on his gun. "We'll take it from here, sir." He looked over at Seth who also had his hand on his gun. He gave him a nod. Walter opened the door and took his gun out, sticking it out in front of him as he slowly walked into the apartment with Seth, his gun drawn as well. The two detectives checked every room in the apartment, the kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom.
"Clear," Seth called out as he walked out of the kitchen.
Walter walked out of the bathroom, pushing his gun back into his holster. "The house is clear. Come on lets look around."
Seth nodded and looked around in the living room with Walter, checking the books and wooden boxes that were scattered through–out the area. It was covered in religious symbols. Walter felt like making a joke about Ervin and how he would be right at home in this apartment. But it wasn't wise to do so. He kept his mouth shut and just kept looking.
"Theres nothing in here," Seth whispered as he put a book back where it was. He walked to the bedroom. Everything looked very normal. It was a clean space.
Walter walked in, seeing Seth turning the whole room upside down.
"Somethings bothering you," Walter said as he tilted his head.
Seth threw the bible down onto the floor, continuing the grab everything on the counter and throwing it down as well. This action made Walter surprised as hell. Seth would never throw the bible down to the ground. Seth grabbed a wooden box with a cross on it, dumping all of the things inside of it onto the floor.
"Hey, Seth calm it down!" Walter said. Suddenly, something fell onto the ground. It was a plain black journal. The two detective stared at it before Seth slowly reached down to pick it up. He opened it up, reading all of its contents.
"Seth, what is it? Seth?" Walter looked at the journal to see why he was so surprised. But once reading it, he too was surprised.
A journal filled with plans to help Emily's family leave New York.
(A/N) Thank you for getting this book to 1.5k reads and 230 votes! I'm still so surprised on how far its gotten. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Please be sure to vote and comment, it helps me out a lot. :)